Today, Windows Live Agent is a chatterbot from by Microsoft Advertising that is underpinned by artificial intelligence using natural language.
It allows consumers to chat with a brand's virtual spokesperson. In this case, the ever-popular Hello Kitty received nearly 70 million unique questions from users.
The "Color of Summer" made use of a full range of ATL, POS and online media, but the heart of the campaign was designed around the theme of instant messaging aimed at the target audience of young consumers in Hong Kong.
When consumers purchased an Extra Value Meal at McDonald's, they were given the opportunity to redeem one of 16 "Hello Kitty Messengers", specially designed plush toys featuring cute new emoticon faces.
Consumers were also driven to add a virtual Hello Kitty (the Windows Live Agent) as a friend on their Windows Live Messenger. The campaign encouraged users to collect an exclusive set of Hello Kitty emoticons and winks for their Windows Live Messenger.
Consumers could collect emoticons in several ways: the first was to start a chat with the Hello Kitty Agent and enter codes found on the toys and food packaging. Players could also win more emoticons by answering scripted questions from Hello Kitty such as "What's my sister's name" and "What's my favorite food."
Note: In October 2006, Microsoft acquired privately owned Colloquis Inc., a provider of conversational online business solutions that feature natural language-processing technology. This has been used to build Windows Live Agent.
